A refrigerator is an apparatus for use in storing food at a low temperature and may be configured to store food in a frozen state or a refrigerated state depending on the kinds of food to be stored.
The interior of the refrigerator is cooled by a continuously-supplied cold air. The cold air is continuously generated by a heat exchange action of a refrigerant which goes through a freezing cycle consisting of compression, condensation, expansion and evaporation. The cold air supplied into the refrigerator is uniformly transferred to the interior of the refrigerator by convection and is used to store food at a desired temperature within the refrigerator.
The refrigerator includes a main body having a rectangular parallelepiped shape with a front surface thereof opened. A refrigeration compartment and a freezing compartment may be provided within the main body. A refrigeration compartment door and a freezing compartment door for selectively shielding opening portions may be provided on the front surface of the main body. Drawers, racks, storage boxes and the like for storing different kinds of food in an optimal state may be provided in the internal storage spaces of the refrigerator.
In general, top-mount-type refrigerators each having a freezing compartment positioned at the upper side and a refrigeration compartment positioned at the lower side constitute the mainstream of refrigerators. In recent years, there are commercially available bottom-freeze-type refrigerators in which a freezing compartment is positioned at the lower side in order to enhance the user convenience. In the case of the bottom-freeze-type refrigerators, the frequently-used refrigeration compartment is positioned at the upper side and the less-frequently-used freezing compartment is positioned at the lower side. This provides an advantage of enabling a user to conveniently use the refrigeration compartment. However, in the bottom-freeze-type refrigerators, the freezing compartment is positioned at the lower side. Thus, the bottom-freeze-type refrigerators are inconvenient to use because a user should bend the body in order to open a freezing compartment door and to take out ice pieces.
In order to solve this problem, there is commercially available a bottom-freeze-type refrigerator in which a dispenser for taking out ice pieces is provided in a refrigeration compartment door positioned at the upper side of the refrigerator. In this case, an ice-making device for producing ice pieces may be provided in the refrigeration compartment door or the interior of the refrigeration compartment.
In the case of the bottom-freeze-type refrigerator in which an ice-making device is installed in a refrigeration compartment door, an air (cold air) cooled by a evaporator is divisionally discharged into a freezing compartment and refrigeration compartment. The cold air discharged toward the freezing compartment flows toward the ice-making device along a cold air supply duct embedded in a sidewall of a refrigerator main body. Then, the cold air cools water into ice pieces while flowing through the interior of the ice-making device. Thereafter, the cold air existing within the ice-making device is discharged into the refrigeration compartment via a cold air return duct embedded in the sidewall of the refrigerator main body, thereby lowering the internal temperature of the refrigeration compartment.
However, in the case of the refrigerator of the related art, the cold air supply duct, the cold air return duct and a structure for insulating the ducts need to be added to the left or right wall surface portion of the refrigeration compartment. Thus, the volume of the refrigerator may be reduced and the internal pipe arrangement structure of the refrigerator may be complex.
Furthermore, the production of ice pieces in the refrigerator door is performed by an indirect cooling method using the cold air flowing through the cold air supply duct. Thus, the water existing in the refrigerator door is not directly cooled by a refrigerant. This may reduce the ice-making speed.